


These Golden Days I Spent With You

by orphan_account



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 19:24:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15758130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The sky was darker than Clarice had ever seen it. She was a city girl, used to hiding among bright lights and the noise of thousands of other humans trying to get through their day. She was used to the thunder of traffic, the sickening jolt you got when spotting a cop car, walking the streets at night and feeling intoxicated by the energy of it all.Post S1 and what remains of the gang try to track down their friends.





	1. Chapter 1

The sky was darker than Clarice had ever seen it. She was a city girl, used to hiding among bright lights and the noise of thousands of other humans trying to get through their day. She was used to the thunder of traffic, the sickening jolt you got when spotting a cop car, walking the streets at night and feeling intoxicated by the energy of it all.  
This wasn’t the city. This was the countryside. Dark and raw and empty but far noisier than Clarice had ever thought it could be. Birds singing to each other in the early hours of the morning, filling her with an almost murderous rage where she imagined portalling the birds from outside her window to somewhere very far away. Wasn’t the countryside supposed to be tranquil? Wasn’t that why all the rich people bought homes out here?  
John had got the place from a contact, one he didn’t specify. She had asked if they could trust his tip off and he just looked at her mutely.  
“I don’t suppose it matters,” Marcos had replied on his behalf, half joking and half bitter. “Just because you trust someone doesn’t mean they’re trustworthy.”  
Clarice had avoided looking at them. The fallout from the events of the past month had worn everyone out. Marcos had talked himself into a circle, trying to weed the explanation as to why Lorna would abandon her friends. Her family. John had switched between being despondently stoic and being an alarmingly organised drill sergeant. The Struckers had determinedly settled into the community, despite being shocked at Andy’s departure. Clarice kinda admired them in a strange way. If she were them, she would have left straight after Andy had.  
Clarice stretched in her bed. Empty, as was the norm. She and John were a… what exactly. A couple, but not really because they only really behaved as a couple in stolen snatches of time. This room was theirs but John seemed to barely be sleeping. He was helping Reed and Caitlyn track Andy and the rest of the Hellfire Club by day and run this place by night. It was too much, even for a mutant.  
Clarice got dressed and headed to the kitchen. It was a far smaller place than the last one but it felt bigger. Light splintered through windows and caught on spider webs. The kids could play outside. It felt less like hiding. More like living.  
Clarice nodded to a few people at the breakfast table. She knew she was becoming a lot more accepting of the idea of friends, of the idea of family, but she wasn’t ever going to be able to change her personality and be the type of person people wanted to befriend. She spotted Caitlyn in the hallway. Now there was the type of person people clamored to befriend.  
John, Marcos, Clarice and The Struckers had formed an unintentional team, bound by a need to find their loved ones. John tracked, Clarisse portalled them to and from their last tracking point, and Marcos and The Struckers kept up the momentum.  
She met up with them just after ten, in the briefing shed. John sat on the paddock door and nodded along while Marcos talked. Marcos was a great speaker. Had he not been a mutant, he could have had a career in politics. Maybe as a mutant he would. Clarice took the time to study John. Hos bags under his eyes didn’t look much more prominent than yesterday, but she thought she was getting too used to them, that she was beginning to believe John had always looked exhausted and worn down.  
Marcos detailed the plan. Clarice would portal them to the place in DC where John had picked up definite tracks. John would track. Today would be today. Today would be today.  
Actually, sometimes Clarice wished Marcos was less of a talker. They all knew their roles. They weren’t amnesiacs. 

It was raining in DC, sheets of water soaked them almost immediately. Caitlyn was the only one who had brought and umbrella, and she and Lauren sheltered under it apologetically.  
John looked worried. He did his weird spaced out but focused look and then shook his head. Paced another couple of feet and did it again. Same story.  
“Everything okay?” Reed asked, managing to sound concerned rather than angry. Clarice thought they were handling everything spookily well.  
John closed his eyes, then opened them slowly.  
“It’s gone,” he said “The trail is gone.”


	2. Chapter 2

Marcos reacted first. He rounded on John. “What do you mean? How can it be gone?”  
Clarice looked out onto the horizon. They were in a wooded area but there was no telling where the Hellfire Club had set up shop. They had a lot of money and a lot of power, so were probably hiding in plain sight. Well, not hiding. Apparently they didn’t go for anything as life extending as hiding.  
John wrinkled his forehead, and held his hand up. “Look,” he said, gazing at Marcos then at Reed then at the umbrella- protected lady Struckers. “The trail hasn’t gone exactly but it’s not the same. It’s not… it’s not…” He took a breath in. Clarice wanted to be by his side, an arm around his shoulders, teasing him, saying, “stop taking everything so seriously.” But he had to. They all had to.

“It’s not?”  
“It’s not right.” John finished, and stopped pacing.   
“We’ve come this far,” Lauren ventured, stepping out into the rain to stand by her father.   
Caitlyn didn’t seem as convinced. She wanted to find her son, yeah, but not at the expense of the family standing in front of her. Reed wavered as well. He and Caitlyn were one of those rare couples in the world that truly were a team. If she wasn’t all in, neither was he.  
Marcos took John aside. The Struckers talked among themselves to allow them some privacy but Clarice wasn’t going to let them have that luxury. She listened to every word.  
“I don’t think we should go.”  
“So we don’t go and then what? This is all we have. This is all I’ve got John, to find Lorna and my baby.”  
A sigh. “Lorna doesn’t want to be found.”  
A pause. “What, so that means we shouldn’t try?”  
“It just means she made her choice, Marcos.”  
Marcos sounded furious. “What about my baby? My baby didn’t get to make a choice. And I don’t believe Lorna has made hers. Not really. She’s scared and she’s not thinking straight. We don’t abandon family.” He said the last part quietly, voice barely a whisper.   
John ducked his head. After a beat he said, “Okay.”  
They walked through the woods in silence. At least it was less wet among the trees, but still slippery. The forest floor was steep, and the umbrella was passed around as a walking aide. John acted as one as well.   
They walked for hours. The rain subsided and the sun came out. Clarice began to sweat.   
“Water break,” she called, and they all sat in a semi circle, atop some twisted roots.   
Caitlyn and Reed carried the conversation, making sure to include everyone. John and Marcos sat beside each other but did not speak. Clarice wanted to ask when they’d be leaving, but figured they’d leave once something happened or they all died of thirst.   
They formed their line again. Lauren nearly tripped down a concealed ravine but managed to break her fall with her own powers. She held there until everyone had passed safely.   
Clarice was aware of a strange buzzing in her ears but she didn’t think it was anything more sinister than an irritating fly. She was wrong. Very wrong.

John stopped abruptly. “Electricity,” he pronounced and scanned the area. “It’s caging us in.”  
“Should we turn back?” Caitlyn asked worried. “I don’t know that we can. Be ready.” John disappeared into another valley of trees. Clarice wished she wasn’t so far. She brandished her portal, just in case.   
She was last to see it. She heard Marcos, “What?” and Caitlyn’s “oh my god” and then she saw it for herself. A small boy at the trunk of a tree, smiling blankly at them. Then he screamed. 

 

Clarice didn’t know how much time had passed when she woke up but she thought maybe only seconds. Nobody else was conscious. Lauren was closest to her so she shook her into waking. “Mom,” she cried, running to her mothers side. “Stay alert,” Clarisse told her, making her way to the others. Marcos was sitting up, looking pained. “You good?” Clarice asked him, but she didn’t wait for an answer. John was still not moving.  
He looked like he was sleeping and that’s how Clarice knew it was bad, because John never slept.   
“He’s bleeding,” Marcos said, his voice a thimble in the wind.   
“He can’t be,” Clarice protested. But he was.   
He had bled from his ears. He had blood running down his right arm, collecting in a pool by his hand. His nose was bleeding. “Caitlyn,” Clarice placed her hand on John’s chest. Blood.   
“CAITLYN!”


	3. Chapter 3

Marcus couldn’t believe what was happening. John was never supposed to get hurt; it was the one thing he thought he could rely on. Clarice was screaming for Caitlyn and he was trying to stem the blood. John was pale, like death had already crept in and stolen his soul. Blood flowing from a 3 deep wounds on his upper arm. A large wound on his chest. How did they get there?   
Caitlyn had come prepared. Lauren held the bag as she rummaged around pulling out gauze. She didn’t ask how it was possible or demand anything from them. Just worked steadily, as though she had known even those with the strongest bodies were not invulnerable to injuries.   
“There’s too much blood,” she murmured. Clarice made a sound at the back of her throat. She was barely holding it together. Caitlyn looked at Marcos. “You need to cauterize his cuts.” She said it was though she were suggesting he make them all a pot of tea.   
Marcos blinked at her, appalled. “I- what?”   
Caitlyn fixed him with a steely look. “We need those wounds closed now. The most effective way is if you use your powers to close them. I’ll wash them out.”  
Marcos looked at his hands. His powers were weapons or light shows, not for healing. He might end up hurting John even more.   
“Marcos!” Clarice snapped. Caitlyn poured antiseptic solution onto John, who chose that very moment to regain consciousness. He gazed at them through pain laden eyes.  
“Shit,” Marcos shook his head. John had never hurt anyone he didn’t mean to, but he wouldn’t be able to control his powers in a situation like this.   
John was half in and half out of consciousness. He looked at Marcos with questions in his eyes and Marcos made up his mind.   
“Get back,” he barked, and they leapt back. Clarice looked mutinous but Marcos knew she understood the precautions he had to take.   
“I’m sorry, buddy,” he said to his friend, and set about making him whole again.   
..  
“Can we wake him up?” Clarice asked.   
Caitlyn sighed. “He’s not in good shape. I don’t want him to be unconscious for much longer. But he’ll be in pain,” she warned, “and he’s not used to long volumes of that.” She scanned the woods for her husband and daughter. They were with the boy, the one that had caused this.  
Of course, if you went back a little bit, you could plea the case that Marcos caused this.   
“The little boy,” Caitlyn looked torn.   
“Go,” Marcos told her. “We’ve got John.”  
“Press down on his sternum to wake him up. Any problems just yell.”  
“Pain med?” Clarice asked.  
Marcos shook his head. “He’ll metabolize it before it hits his bloodstream. Happens with alcohol,” he explained.  
Clarice didn’t look convinced. “He might not this time.”  
Caitlyn gave her a sympathetic squeeze of the shoulders. “We’re running low. I know it sounds horrible but they aren’t worth using them on someone that they probably won’t work on. Clarice nodded, defeated.  
John woke up slowly. He was groggy and not making sense. Marcos tried to reassure him, but as performances went, it was pretty feeble.   
Clarice was squeezing John’s hand. “Careful,” Marcos said, and John was lucid enough to prise his hand from Clarice’s. Clarice shot Marcos a venomous glance. She stroked John’s hair instead.   
“We need to go,” she said. John’s eyes fluttered close. “We’re far too vulnerable.”  
“I agree.” They nodded at each other and Clarice made a portal.  
He whistled to the Struckers, who made a run towards them. Marcos struggled to get John up. Reed rushed over and they half dragged him into the portal. Lauren came through, and then Caitlyn, carrying the boy. Marcos wanted to scream at her but found he had neither the energy or the inclination. They were never going to abandon a child out there. It was just not something they could do.   
Clarice came through her portal and ignored the presence of the child, except to say, “If he hurts John…” They moved John into the room he and Clarice shared.  
Marcos hovered at the door. “I’ll call you if we need you,” Clarice said, which was as clear a dismissal as any.   
Marcos bowed his head and walked out.   
He stopped by the windowsill and looked at the sun splitting from the sky and the birds frolicking in the sky. Pathetic fallacy was such a myth.


	4. Chapter 4

Clarice sat and watched John. She wanted to hold his hand, to stroke his face, but more than that she wanted him to sleep. So she sat on the chair beside the bed and watched him.   
He woke up in the early hours of the morning with a low whine. Clarice nearly fell out of her chair. She switched on the light and moved so he could see her.   
“It’s okay.” Clarice told him. “You’re okay.”  
John’s appearance disputed this. His face was still ashen, his eyes still shadowed. Clarice supposed it would take more than a nights sleep to make those go away.   
“Is everyone else good?” he slurred. He kept closing his eyes.  
“John.” Clarice made her tone of voice as firm as she could. His eyes flickered open. “Are you…does it hurt?”  
John smiled up at her, a goofy grin that made her think someone had sneaked painkillers into his bloodstream.  
“Nah,”  
“Nah?” Clarice repeated.  
“Hmmm.” John yawned. “Little bit,” he conceded.  
“First time for everything, I guess,” Clarice shook her head.   
“That kid…” John had taken her hand and was playing with her fingers. “Was that this kid?”  
“Yeah.” Clarice said shortly. Because that kid was here, somewhere. And John was potentially still in the danger zone.   
“Did it happen to you as well?”  
She shrugged. “Yeah, but I just blacked out for a moment. Maybe it’s because you were closest.”  
She didn’t mean for that to come out as harshly as it did. As though she was saying it was his fault.   
“No.” John released her hand. “I think it was a warning.”

“A warning?” repeated Marcos in disbelief. “A warning from who?”  
“The Hellfire Club.” Lauren stated, and shrugged when they all stared at her. “Got to be, right? They know we want Andy and Lorna and whoever else.”  
“Lorna would never to anything to hurt John,” Marcos scoffed, but his face betrayed his concern.   
“Maybe she didn’t know,” Clarice attempted diplomacy.   
“Maybe we should just ask him,” Reed suggested. They all turned to look through the window where the boy was temporarily housed. Or caged to be exact, but that was for safety.  
“I don’t really fancy my brain bleeding again.” Marcos said callously. Caitlyn made her way decisively toward the door. “I need to check up on him anyway.” She glanced at everyone hovering behind her. “Come on, guys. He’s not the enemy. He’s just a kid.”  
Marcos hung his head a little at this rebuttal. They followed her out. Clarice had already decided if the kid tried anything she’d portal his ass to the furthest barn on their property.  
He was younger than he had looked in the field. Behind the cage he looked like a trapped puppy.   
“We just want to talk you,” Caitlyn smiled at him. Reassuring. He didn’t smile back.  
“What’s your name?”  
The kid stared at his shoes. Expensive branded trainers, Clarice noted.  
“Okay,” Caitlyn said. “We’ll bring you some food in a bit and get a bed sorted in here for you, alright.”  
Silence. A nod. 

They converged around Caitlyn after they left the barn.  
“That was a talk?” Clarice asked.  
“He’s not going to talk straight away.” Caitlyn was calm. “And he’s not a criminal.”  
“Okay.” Clarice was still uneasy with the idea of him being in a cage. Everyone needed to be safe but it didn’t sit well. Still, Caitlyn seemed to think it was best for now and she trusted he judgement. Trust. Now there was a feeling Clarice hadn’t felt in a while.   
“Do you think you could check on John?” Clarice asked quietly, once the others had dispersed. It was so strange not having him patrolling the place. She felt a twinge of sympathy for Marcos. This must have been the feeling he was dealing with since Lorna had abandoned him. She frowned at herself. Harsh, Clarice, she scolded inwardly. Don’t say that sentence out loud. Ever.  
Caitlyn smiled at her. “Of course, Clarice.”


End file.
